Upper Intermediate Unit 3 BBC Interviews Script

V = Val R = Rob H = Hannah B = Bob A = Adela Al = Alice

Ro = Robert
V: Hi. I read a lot, mostly non-fiction books about history and politics, but I
also like some poetry, too. I’m outside the Tate Modern in Central
London asking people about reading. Do you read much?
R: I do, yeah. I try to read as much as possible.
H: Yes, I do. I’m a great reader.
B: Yes, I do, yes. Mostly non-fiction.
A: I read a lot of fashion magazines.
Al: Yeah, I read a fair bit.
Ro: Yeah, I read a lot of, sort of, art criticism and things, and things like
that. But, I also, I read a lot of comic books as well.
V: What was the last book you read?
H: Well, the last book I read was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen,
which was a book recommended to me by some friends—I’d never
heard of her, or indeed the book—but, I enjoyed it very much. It was a
story about a circus in the 1930s America.
R: The last book I read was a novel called The Search by a London
author called Geoff Dyer, and it’s about, it’s set in the States. It’s about
a man who’s paid to pursue another person, and he travels across the
land trying to catch him.
A: The last book I read: Breaking Dawn, part of the Twilight Saga by
Stephanie Myers. I was re-reading it for the third time because I really
enjoy the books. They get you quite hooked.
Al: I read a collection of short stories by Sylvia Plath called Johnny Panic
and the Bible of Dreams.
B: Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, which was an
"easy read," and it was fun. It was humorous. It was a book I’d had on
my shelf for ages, and I just, it took me years to get round to reading it.
V: What’s your favorite book?
H: My favorite book of all time is a book called One Fine Day by Mollie
Panter-Downes, which is a book about a housewife just after the

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 Upper Intermediate Unit 3 BBC Interviews Script

Second World War, and it just traces her existence in a day of her life.
It’s terribly mundane.
Ro: Probably The Killing Joke, which is a Batman graphic novel.
Al: Well, one of them is definitely a book by Jean Cocteau called Les
Enfants Terribles, which is about two siblings and their, kind of, twisted
relationship.
V: Which fictional character would you most like to be or meet?
R: I’d most like to meet the fictional character John Self from Martin Amis’
novel Money, which is the funniest novel I’ve ever read.
B: I think that would be The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. Just his
irrationality, or irrationality to everyone else who looks at him, but to
him, he’s completely normal.
Ro: That’s quite an easy one: Batman. I’d love to be Batman, and I’d love to
meet the Joker.
Al: I think I’d like to meet Humbert Humbert from Lolita, which is by
Nabokov, because he’s such a complex character. And, in the book,
you really empathize with him even though he’s got such dark and
monstrous desires.
H: Perhaps one of my, the people I’d most like to meet would be Mr.
Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. And, I suppose, by default, that means
I’d quite like to be Elizabeth Bennett.

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